<p>Has anyone taken the test yet? I'm gonna take it next week and was wondering if the test is 3 hours each for Math, English and Chem or 3 hours combined for all of them. Also, what would you say about the difficulty of the test?</p>
<p>Also, i haven't taken chem since my sophomore year in high school and i don't remember any of it!!!! What should I do? Will it matter much since i'm going to Smeal? </p>
<p>Also, i got into the Sapphire program, which says that i get first preference for accelerated courses. So, is this test still important for me?</p>
<p>You take them in one go. For me, English was the worst. You are given 60 questions in 40 minutes or something. Math and chemistry were much better...but that's me.</p>
<p>Total time is 3 hours...each test is not 1 hour long. It varies...something like 40 minutes for English, 1 hour 40 minutes (100 minutes) for math, and 40 minutes for chemistry.</p>
<p>mightynick: they give you your scores on FTCAP day and they can influence the level of english, math and science they recommend (along with your AP credits). Most kids did pretty bad on chem - not a big deal for business majors. Just take them and you'll get to ask lots of questions on FTCAP day. Have you been assigned a day yet? I seem to remember that they don't schedule you until you take the tests - you should take them right away and get in there as the classes are filling up (especially with the 8000 students they have coming in!). Good luck.</p>
<p>Although you have to take your FTCAP tests all in one sitting, you can take a short break between sections to stretch, or whatever. So...three hours for testing and a few extra minutes to take the short breaks between sections. S thought the chem was the easiest of the three sections followed by the math. He thought the English was difficult, but was pleasantly surprised by the results. There seems to be quite a 'curve' on the English section. </p>
<p>S actually scored highly on all three sections. His math and English scores were right in line with his SAT scores.</p>
<p>karp4170 when did your son take chem in high school? Is he doing a Science/Engineering major? If so, then i can believe it might have been easy for him! </p>
<p>I got a few review books for chem from the library....i'll see how much i can re-teach myself. As toneranger said....the chem might not matter for me so much but i don't want to fail it either...coz at the moment i know NOTHING at all about chem!</p>
<p>mighty nick - I think you might want to rethink studying for the Chem exam - especially given that you're a business major. My son also had chem in soph year (physics followed by AP Physics 2 as a sr with a bunch of Eng/Science types - not fun for him). In any case, he did NOT study, and he did find it hard (remembered very little). But it meant nothing in the end. He didn't fail but his score was in the mid bracket vs the high bracket (many of the students at FTCAP had similar results). Eng and math are more impt for you. For my son- these scores also tracked with his SAT. Good luck!</p>
<p>If you're a business major, you probably are not required to take any chemistry courses anyway. If that is the case, the chem placement test is meaningless for you. For science and engineering majors (and anyone else who is required to take chemistry for their major) this test is used to determine a starting point. If they don't score high enough, they must take a lower level course first, before the required chem courses for their major. I think the math and english ftcaps are more important since math and english courses are part of the gen ed requirements that all students must take.</p>
<p>MightyNick
If you are going to be a business major, you probably do not need to be concerned about the chem placement test, since you are not required to take any chemisty. I totally agree with the above posters that it is more important for those in science and engineering majors. If you were going to be a science or engineering major and did poorly on the placement test, they would place you in a more introductory level of chem before moving to the regular sequence. That basically was true for all three exams: making sure you should start in the regular sequence (or choose the higher level in the case of English 15 or 30) or begin at a slightly lower level to make sure you are familiar with basic concepts/skills necessary for success. And you are correct, my S will be an engineering major and he did take more than just the intro chem course in hs.</p>
<p>caa5042
We did not get 'exact scores'. There was a distribution chart that put Xs in one of six categories: lower end of low, higher end of low, lower end of typical, higher end of typical, lower end of high, higher end of high. On the back of the sheet there was a chart that showed what 'range' of correct answers you got to place your scores into the categories. </p>
<p>I would continue to be interested to see if more students found that their FTCAP math and English results correlated to the SAT scores.</p>
<p>I think I should do ok on math and english. I took AP Cacl AB this year so Algebra II and trig should be familiar to me. As for english, there's only grammar, synonyms/antonyms on the test...which shouldn't be too hard...i hope. But yeah, 60 questions in 40 minutes seems tricky.</p>
<p>Also...are the questions on the test all multiple choice or are they open ended?</p>
<p>Yes, my son took it a month ago and just got back from FTCAP Day at PSU. Took Honors Chem soph year and Calc AP AB-BC, AP English. Thought Math was EASY, Eng and Chem ok though didn't remember Chem a lot. Scored high in all on sheet you get at orientation. Classes are filling up fast when he registered. Lots of sections full as well as choices for electives. Hurray if you haven't gone to FTCAP DAY.</p>
<p>So finally, i've taken the test. I thought Math (the non-calc test) was incredibly easy. English was challgening, especially the section where you had to find the error in the sentence. Chem wasn't too bad and I think i did quite decent on it.</p>
<p>While some classes may be full now, they will most likely add more sections of some of the basic courses (like English 015). When my daughter went up for FTCAP last year, there was only one section of Eng 015 open, so she registered for it. When more sections opened up, she was able to switch to a section that better suited her schedule (you can do this online at home). Also, as students revise their schedule, there may be openings in classes that are now closed. You're still better off getting up there for FTCAP asap because you will have a better selection now and can always change your schedule as things open up. Those that register at the end will be stuck with what's left.</p>